War against cancer: A victory in progress as death rates tumble with new drugs, screening and prevention

The fight against cancer has been yielding results slowly and steadily. Data on cancer's manifestations and treatment has painted a positive picture. Could that mean that the world is inching closer to a cure?

While an answer to that remains uncertain, other factors, like death rates and advanced medical treatment, suggest that things are looking better than they were a decade ago.

Here's how:

Falling death rates

The chances of getting affected by cancer increase as people age. Since the 1990s, the age-adjusted death rate related to cancer has fallen considerably. For example, in the US, where cancer is the second-most common cause of death, the age-adjusted death rate is now a third lower than in the 1990s. This trend is not exclusive to America, but is mimicked by other developed countries as well.

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A 2024 report by the Nation on the Status of Cancer shows that overall death rates from cancer declined steadily among both men and women from 2001 through 2022, even during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Childhood leukaemia survival rates go up

The survival rate of childhood leukaemia has increased significantly in the past few years. Now, it has a five-year survival rate above 90 per cent. This has been made possible by advancements in treatment measures for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), which is the most common type that affects children.

Better prevention

One of the most overlooked success stories in the fight against cancer is prevention. For instance, smoking rates have dropped sharply in high-income countries, likely preventing over 3 million cancer deaths in the US alone since 1975.

Yet smoking still accounts for one in five cancer deaths globally. This means that anti-tobacco efforts in low- and middle-income countries, where smoking remains widespread, have the potential to save millions more lives.

Cheaper treatment

Cancer treatment has gone easy on the pockets considerably. Curbing the spread of cervical cancer, the most common cancer among women, is a case in point. Cervical cancer is caused by the delayed side-effect of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Now, the prevalence of the HPV vaccine and its administration to young girls across the world has brought down the chances of getting the bug at all.

In the UK, for example, HPV vaccines have brought down the rates of cervical cancer among women in their 20s are down by 90 per cent.